The Spy Who Loved Me (film)
| followed_by = | starring = | editing = | language = | budget = | imdb_id = }} The Spy Who Loved Me in many ways was a make or break film for the Bond franchise and was plagued since its conception by many problems. The first was the departure of Bond producer Harry Saltzman, who was forced to sell his half of the Bond film franchise due to financial difficulties. A second problem was the issue of finding a director. The first director attached to the film was Guy Hamilton, who directed the previous three Bond films as well as Goldfinger, but left after being offered the opportunity to direct the 1978 film, Superman: The Movie. It has been reported that EON Productions, after Hamilton's departure, approached Steven Spielberg to direct the film, though after Jaws turned out to be such a huge success, the producers would not agree to Spielberg's demands for creative control and turned instead to Lewis Gilbert who had directed the similar Bond film, You Only Live Twice. With a director finally secured, the next hurdle to be overcome was finishing the script, which had gone through several rewrites by numerous writers. Additionally, the initial villain of the film was Ernst Stavro Blofeld, however, Kevin McClory, who owns the film rights to Thunderball forced an injunction on EON Productions delaying the film further. The villain would later be changed from Blofeld to Karl Stromberg so that the injunction could be lifted. Christopher Wood was later brought in by Lewis Gilbert to complete the script. Although Fleming had requested no elements from his original book be used, the novel features a thug named Sol Horror who is described as having steel capped teeth. This character would be the basis for Jaws, although having steel capped teeth is where the similarity between Horror and Jaws ends. Regardless of all the problems throughout production of the film, The Spy Who Loved Me was a financial and box office success, raking in $185,400,000 worldwide on a production budget of $14 million USD. At the time it was the highest grossing Bond film. The Spy Who Loved Me was also nominated for three Academy Awards for: *Nominated Best Art Direction, (Ken Adam, Peter Lamont, Hugh Scaife) *Nominated Best Original Music Score (Marvin Hamlisch) *Nominated Best Original Song (Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager). Plot summary A submarine from the Royal Navy, a submarine from the United States Navy, and a submarine from the Soviet fleet are stolen by the villain, Karl Stromberg, in an attempt to launch their nuclear weapons at targets around the globe. James Bond teams up with Major Anya Amasova (a.k.a. Agent Triple X) from the Soviet Union to find out what happened and prevent a possible World War III. The film begins in Egypt near the pyramids. Later the duo travels together to Sardinia before finding Stromberg's base. He plans to launch nuclear weapons from the submarines he took, with the first targets being New York City and Moscow, to start World War III while he is safe in an underwater city. However, Bond is able to get the submarines to destroy each other and foils this plan. The film is best known for the Bond's Lotus Esprit submarine/car and the introduction of Jaws, a giant and seemingly indestructible assassin with steel teeth. Jaws, played by Richard Kiel, is the only henchman of the James Bond villains privileged to appear in more than one film. He later appeared in Moonraker. Previously, Kiel played a similar character in the action comedy Silver Streak starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Cast & characters *James Bond - Roger Moore *M - Bernard Lee *Miss Moneypenny - Lois Maxwell *Q - Desmond Llewelyn *Jaws - Richard Kiel *Karl Stromberg - Curt Jurgens *Major Anya Amasova (Agent Triple X) - Barbara Bach *Fredrick Gray (Minister of Defence) - Geoffrey Keen *Anatol Gogol - Walter Gotell *Rubelvitch (Gogol's Assistant) - Eva Rueber-Staier *Naomi, Stromberg's Helicopter Pilot - Caroline Munro *Captain Benson - George Baker *Sergei Barsov - Michael Billington *[[Felicca - Olga Bisera *Sheikh Hosein - Edward De Souza *Max Kalba - Vernon Dobtcheff *Hotel receptionist - Valerie Leon *Sandor - Milton Reid *Dr. Bechmann - Cyril Shaps *Professor Markovitz - Milo Sperber Robert Brown also has a smaller role in The Spy Who Loved Me as Admiral Hargreaves. Brown would go on to replace Bernard Lee as M in Octopussy. It has never been established as to whether Brown was supposed to be still playing Lee's character, a promoted Hargreaves, or someone else. Walter Gotell makes his first appearance as General Gogol of the KGB. Gogol would appear in all future Roger Moore Bond films and would make his final appearance in Timothy Dalton's The Living Daylights. While this was his first appearance as Gogol, this is Gotell's second appearance in a James Bond film. His first was in From Russia with Love where he played the villain Morzeny. Crew *Directed by: Lewis Gilbert *Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, William P. Cartlidge *Screenplay by: Christopher Wood, Richard Maibaum *Composed by: Marvin Hamlisch *Cinematography by: Claude Renoir *Film editor and second unit director: John Glen *Production design by: Ken Adam Soundtrack Main Article: The Spy Who Loved Me (soundtrack) Vehicles & gadgets *Lotus Esprit — Including all of the usual Q refinements, this car was equipped with surface to air missiles. The main feature of the car however was the ability to transform into a submarine. Once transformed it could unleash depth charges and smoke screens. The car was nicknamed Wet Nellie, a reference to the autogyro provided by Q for Bond's use in You Only Live Twice. *Wetbike — a hydrofoil "water motorcycle" used by Bond to travel from the US Submarine to Stromberg's Atlantis to save Triple X. Built by a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Arctic Enterprises. *XXX's Cigarette — The cigarette used by Triple X contained knock-out powder. *Seiko Quartzwatch — Basically working like a pager, it had a built-in telex that allowed MI6 to send important messages to Bond, printing them out like a miniature teletype. (It actually looked more like a label-maker tape.) *Ski pole gun — Was used to fire a projectile at his pursuers. He uses it to kill Triple X's lover while escaping from him in the pre-credits sequence. Locations Film locations *The Austrian Alps *Cairo, Egypt *Giza pyramid complex *Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, Egypt *Moscow, Russia *Sardinia Shooting locations *Pinewood Studios / 007 Stage *Sardinia *Egypt *Malta *Scotland *Okinawa *Switzerland *Auyuittuq National Park, Canada Trivia * At the end of the film, the credits announce that the next Bond film will be For Your Eyes Only. Ultimately, however, the producers chose instead to adapt Moonraker next in order to cash in on the sci-fi/fantasy craze sparked by the success of Star Wars and Superman. * This is the second film in the history of the Bond series (as of 2004) in which M refers to Bond by his first name, rather than simply 007 or Bond (the first time was at his wedding in On Her Majesty's Secret Service). We also hear M's real first name (Miles) for the first time on film. In addition, Q is referred to by his real name (Major Boothroyd) for the first time since From Russia with Love. But Miss Moneypenny is still left without a first name! * The 007 Soundstage at Pinewood Studios, for many years the largest in the world, was specially constructed for this film. *Prior to the film's release, Barbara Bach posed nude for the men's magazine Playboy. * Michael Billington, who plays Anya's ill-fated lover, Sergei, was considered a candidate for the role of Bond on several occasions in the 1970s and 1980s. He is best known for his role as Paul Foster in the science fiction series UFO. * Demand for Lotus Esprits surged after the film was released. Many new customers were put on a three-year waiting list. * Stanley Kubrick provided uncredited assistance in supervising the lighting of the tanker set due to cinematographer Claude Renoir's failing eyesight. * Although this isn't the first Bond film to relocate M's office to an exotic location as a branch office (You Only Live Twice was the first), it is the first to have Q-Branch likewise relocated with a full array of weapons and testing personnel catering to the particular region of the world. Future similar relocations would occur in Moonraker and Octopussy. (Q, on his own, first joined Bond in the field in Thunderball.) * Valerie Leon has a brief scene with Moore. She also appears in Never Say Never Again opposite Sean Connery's James Bond. Novelisation When Ian Fleming sold the film rights to the James Bond novels to Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, he only gave permission for the title The Spy Who Loved Me to be used. Since the screenplay for the film had nothing to do with Fleming's original novel, Glidrose Publications, for the first time, authorised that a novelisation be written based upon the script. This would also be the first regular Bond novel published since Colonel Sun nearly a decade earlier. Christopher Wood, who co-authored the screenplay with Richard Maibaum, was commissioned to write the book, which was given the title James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me. Wood would also novelise the screenplay for the next Bond film, Moonraker in 1979. The novelisation and the screenplay, although both written by Wood are somewhat different. In the novelisation SMERSH is still active and still after James Bond. Their part in the novelisation begins during the "pre-title credits" sequence in which Bond is escaping from a cabin on the top of Aiguille du Mort, a mountain near the town of Chamonix. After the mysterious death of Fekkish, SMERSH appears yet again this time capturing and torturing Bond for the whereabouts of the microfilm that retains plans for a submarine tracking system. The appearance of SMERSH conflicts with a number of Bond stories, including the film The Living Daylights (1987), in which a character remarks that SMERSH has been defunct for over 20 years. It also differs from the latter half of Fleming's Bond novels in which SMERSH is mentioned to have been put out of operation. Members of SMERSH from the novelization include the Bond girl Anya Amasova and her lover Sergei Borzov as well as Colonel-General Niktin, a character from Fleming's novel From Russia with Love who has since become the head of SMERSH. Other differences include the villain, Karl Stromberg being renamed as Sigmund Stromberg. The change of Stromberg's given name as well as the existence of SMERSH may be in someway due to the [[Thunderball#Controversy over the novel|controversy over Thunderball]], in which Kevin McClory was made aware of certain plot points of the film The Spy Who Loved Me. At one point the villain of the film was to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E.; however, this was changed to avoid a possible lawsuit over the rights to this character, which originated from the novel Thunderball. See also *''Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me'', a James Bond parody. External links * * MGM's official site for the film * Film Quotes from Wikiquote Spy Who Loved Me, The Category:Roger Moore films